Hello, and welcome to my Anyone Game Its my September/October2013 blog! This is me .

and I have been lurking on the boards since 2004 and a member since 2010. Youll find me hanging out with the Games, Photographers and the Aussie section of the Boards and lurking about on the CB. Contrary to popular belief, Im really the shy and retiring kind.
My fingers, on the other hand .well on both hands .my fingers  theyre the really sociable and chatty type.

Im planning to head back to WDW in late September or early October 2013 with my DH and DS. The reason for the trip will be to catch up with some of the other DisGamers for a DisMeet, which is the inspiration for my title!

Ive called this a blog rather than a PTR. Anyone whos read one of my PTRs before (except for the 1st one) will have realized that I fill my PTRs with my outings and photographs than with actual planning. Given that we have a whole year, this will probably be more along the lines of A Year in the Life of Melbourne than it will be of A Year of WDW Planning. Afterall, there is really hotels, ADRS, tour plans and just about everything in between to plan for ..compared to festivals and other events, fairs, Christmas, birthdays, Australia Day, Chinese New Year, Easter, mini-breaks, scavenger hunts and whatnots to photograph.
Besides; I've just finished a TR and everyone knows that the best way to beat the post trip/TR blues is to start another one!

I hope youll settle in and join me in the next year on this journal. I look forward to sharing with, as well as learning from, all of you!

So lets see .introductions, start of thread .weve come to the DISclaimers section.

DISclaimers.

Whilst this is considered a blog, there will be the standard planning discussions peppered in between.

Food porn is usually a feature in my posts. Anyone who feels strongly about food should be eaten and not photographed please be aware that no correspondence will be entered into on this matter.

As always, deviations and deviants off-topic are usually another feature. Dont worry its not you, its me (although if you stick around, you could discover that it is you too .we just dont know for sure yet).

Above all else .lurk if you must but I would appreciate you posting and providing input and feedback into our blog! Afterall How else is this going to be am I going to get deviations and deviants? NOTE: I really do mean FUN!! FUN!! I mean FUN!!

I hope you stick around for this blog  as always  no seat belts required, feel free to keep your hands, feet and head or any other part of you outside the car  and remember .no liability will be assumed by the writer at any time!

As at 26 Jan 2013, these dates are locked in as the long haul flights have been bought and paid for.

13 Sep- Travel from Melbourne and arrive LA. As I will be crossing the International Date Line, I will be arriving in LA on the same day.

10 Oct - Travel from LA and head home to Melbourne. As I will be crossing the International Date Line, I will be arriving in Melbourne on 12 Oct.

My travel companions:

DS: He is 12 and he shows every sign of being a Disnophile, providing rollercoaster thrill rides are included.

DH: He is not 12. He understands my love of Disney and happy to let me plan Disney vacays providing we pepper it with other activities.

My DisMeet companions:

Bobbiwoz
franandaj. Her PTR for this trip can be found here.
dhorner233
SunDial
TiffanyD
luvchefmic. Her PTR for this trip can be found here.

....and ANZAC Dis-sers

Jade+3
WanderlustNZ

.....for DLR:

BringingUpDisney
5ofus
mvf-m11
franandaj

My itinerary:

As at 18 Feb 2013, here's the firmed up itinerary:

13 Sep: LA/Anaheim (4 nights)

17 Sep: Sedona (3 nights)

20 Sep: Grand Canyon (2 nights)

22 Sep: Page (2 nights)

24 Sep: Monument Valley (1 night)

25 Sep: Durango (4 nights)

29 Sep: WDW (8 nights)

7 Oct: Universal (2 nights)

9 Oct: LA (1 night)

10 Oct: Depart for Melbourne.

Previous plans that have fallen by the wayside:

26 Jan 2013: New York and Hawaii are no longer in the picture. But hey......this is a PRE-trip report. Anything is still possible.

02 Feb 2013: First firm itinerary proposed -

13 Sep: LA (4 nights)

17 Sep: Sedona (3 nights)

20 Sep: Grand Canyon (2 nights)

22 Sep: Monument Valley (1 night)

23 Sep: Durango (3 nights)

26 Sep: Albuquerque (1 night)

27 Sep: Universal (2 nights)

29 Sep: WDW (8 nights)

7 Oct: LA (3 nights)

10 Oct: Depart for Melbourne.​

18 Feb 2013: Extra time in LA at the end has been culled. We are fitting in additional time in the Four Corners area and also shifting time at Universal at the end of the Orlando leg. We had previously thought to head there at the start of the Orlando section before WDW. And we are no longer taking the left fork at Albuquerque!

If it is July in Melbourne, it is the heart of winter. This year has been particularly cold and wet thus far. Our winters do not get as cold as the mid-west as we don't have snowfall in the city (except on rare occassions) but wind chill in Melbourne takes it into Antarctic proportions.

(Okay, I might be exaggerating the Antactic proportions a little...but there really is nothing but the stray Emperor Penguin between us and the Antarctic!).

It is also winter school holidays in Melbourne and there is a ton of holiday activities for us to drop a bundle of cash on.

I love animals of any description and my family have been Friends of the Zoo (FOTZ) members for quite a while now. Our FOTZ membership provides with free entry to the 3 zoos in Melbourne all year round. The three zoos include the Melbourne Zoo, the Werribee Open Range Zoo and the Healesville Sanctuary. So far this year, we've been to Healesville once, the Melbourne Zoo twice....and in July this year, we headed out to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

You see....in winter and during the school holidays, the WORZ has Wild On nights where the zoo is opened late. Much like being at Animal Kingdom, it is really an EMH between 5.30 pm - 8.30 pm; every night for the 2 week period. BYO torch, blanket and warm clothing.

We arrived there shortly after 4 pm; we got there too late and missed the last safari run. But the zoo includes a walking track round and we took the opportunity to check out some of the residents.

I rather think they were checking us out! Afterall, they are used to having the run of the facilities this late in the day. This was especially true of the big cats!

For the Wild On nights, the zoo runs special programs. One of them was a close up encounter with the serval cat.

The lucky ranger gets to work with the lovely servils and she showed us some of the behaviours and hunting tendencies of these cats.

This particular serval wasn't behaving properly on this night. It might have had something to do with about a couple of people in the audience eating during the show! The servil was looking in their direction until the zoo keeper told them to put the food away.

I also caught the fire dancers' show on this night.

DS likes the Wild On nights as the zoo provides free marshmallows to toast around an open campfire. Plus the zoo cafe makes a decent hot chocolate...*sweet*.

Me? I'm always thankful for the opportunity to pull my camera out and practise shooting....particularly at an Open Range!

Excellent start. I am hoping to take a trip next October, but it would be the end if we did. One day, I will meet some or all of you gamers. Your trip sounds awesome and like my next three or four trips all in one. I am glad you are checking out Cars Land. New York and Hawaii are both on my list, so you cannot go wrong whether you or DH win on that topic. I've been to New York, so I would rather go to Hawaii first.

Excellent pictures of the zoo. Granted, they are very small on my phone but they still look awesome. Sorry you missed the last safari run, but glad you made "extra magic hours."

I've actually been reading for the past day or so, I was just waiting to be fashionably late.

Then I realized that I'm not fashionable in any sense of the term, so I may as well come on over early.

Then I forgot to post and fell asleep. So here I am now, roughly on time in a very unfashionable manner!

And I have nothing to add at this time, other than being jealous once again at all your photographic stuff around you . We're pretty limited here, especially without a car (Mobile is not a pedestrian-friendly or mass transit having city).

I always learn something new reading your PTR/TR/blog. I didn't know about the open range zoo!!! Perhaps it's a reason to go down to Melbourne again along with that fishbowl noodle soup.

Gorgeous capture of the animals by the way!

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Antarctically cold weather and fishball noodle soup is a match made for Melbourne! If you check out the Werribee open range zoo, you might find that they will also do overnight $$lumbers in those 5-star tents. I keep meaning to book the family in for one of those. Maybe this year as a Christmas present.... actually, that's a good idea for this year's present. I might just do that.

Excellent start. I am hoping to take a trip next October, but it would be the end if we did. One day, I will meet some or all of you gamers. Your trip sounds awesome and like my next three or four trips all in one. I am glad you are checking out Cars Land. New York and Hawaii are both on my list, so you cannot go wrong whether you or DH win on that topic. I've been to New York, so I would rather go to Hawaii first.

Excellent pictures of the zoo. Granted, they are very small on my phone but they still look awesome. Sorry you missed the last safari run, but glad you made "extra magic hours."

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

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We've been to NY and Hawaii before; but I'm starting to think that I might not make it back to NY this trip. Either that....or I have to rethink the itinerary.

I was sorry to miss the safari run this time. But we'll probably go again before the year is up.

PrincessInOz, please forgive me if this has been asked of you dozens of times (I just stumbled on this thread), but what camera are you using for your photography? Your photographs are stunning!

By the way, we will be in WDW shortly after you leave. Our trip is planned for the end of October. MNSSHP, here we come! I look forward to reading your blog, I'm glad I stumbled in!

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Hello!

And thank you! So glad you stumbled on in here and I hope you stick around. Nice to see someone else starting to plan for Oct 2013 and I noticed a couple more PTRs on this section of the boards as well. I'll definitely need to 'stumble' in their PTRs as well.

My camera? Until very recently, I was shooting with the Canon T2i. It is a couple of generations old now....I believe that line is up to T4i.

I'm currently shooting with the Canon 7D, which is what I used for the zoo shots. I had the opportunity to pick this camera body in Hong Kong for a crazy deal.
Thanks for asking.

I know Allan (cafeen) does include his camera gear details in his PTRs/TRs and it is a great idea. I just wasn't sure if there was anyone following my rambles interested enough. I might go update my second post with my camera and lens details next time I have a blog post.

I've actually been reading for the past day or so, I was just waiting to be fashionably late.

Then I realized that I'm not fashionable in any sense of the term, so I may as well come on over early.

Then I forgot to post and fell asleep. So here I am now, roughly on time in a very unfashionable manner!

And I have nothing to add at this time, other than being jealous once again at all your photographic stuff around you . We're pretty limited here, especially without a car (Mobile is not a pedestrian-friendly or mass transit having city).

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That makes 2 of us! Glad you came on in early.
I'll be pretty jealous of all those pictures you'll be taking at WDW THIS year shortly; so it all balances out in the end.

If and when you decide to visit Melbourne, you can come and check out all those photo opps with me.

(I think you can see some of the pics that will pop up on the scav hunt at the end of this week!! )

My father had a rather special birthday right at the end of June. He turned 80. To the Chinese, the 80th Birthday is considered “Tai Sou” or a “Grand Birthday”. This is because the number '8' or 'phat' is considered lucky and auspicious....in the right intonation, 'phat' can be taken to mean prosperity.

It was so auspicious a birthday that we had relatives fly in from Canada, the US and even Canberra!(For those of you that don't live in Australia, Canberra is the capital city of Australia and it is even colder than Melbourne!)

We had a rather special dinner celebration to mark the occassion.

The menu....it was rather dark in the restaurant and this was the best I could do!

Our starters included:

1. Spring Rolls

2. Chicken Satay (CAUTION: Anyone with a peanut allergy....do NOT lick the screen. This dish contains a delightful spicy peanut sauce on the side)

3. Crab and Pork Lo Bak (the mince in wrapped in a tofu skin and deep fried)

4. Sang Choi Pow (lettuce cups with a pork and vegetable filling)

Our mains was served with steamed rice and consisted of:

5. Seafood Tom Yum noodles

6. Lemongrass grilled chicken

7. Duck Red Curry, unusually served with lychee. I might have to steal that idea!

8. Turmeric Prawns (CAUTION: Some of you may not like coconut. The crumbing on the prawns contains traces of coconut! See above warning regarding licking the screen)

9. Javanese style Beef

10. Fish Curry, with Okra

We had two cakes for dessert.

11. The Mango Mousse Cake.

12. Ice Cream cake

The delicious meal put a smile on all the guest's faces!

And I'm pretty sure that no one floated away....we all rolled down the stairs and out into the street more than a couple of kilos heavier than the start of the evening.